AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You know what I need?” she asked.
“What?”
“For people to stop looking at me with pity. For people to stop tiptoeing around what happened. My husband died. I’m a widow. I’m now a single mom living in the house I shared with him. It sucks, and nothing will make it better. Not even time. I’ll just have to learn to live with it.”
“What are you doing during the day while the kids are gone?”
“I sit at home and stare at nothing until Rach comes over for an hour or so in the afternoon. Then I pick the kids up at five. This is me, living.”
It was as bad as I thought it would be.
No, it was worse.
She was acerbic and sharp-tongued. Honest with a layer of dark humor that I didn’t find amusing at all.
But this wasn’t about me. Darcy was grieving, and no one could tell her how she was supposed to do it.
“If you need anything…” I trailed off.
“I don’t.”
“Okay, I guess I’ll go then,” I said, backtracking toward the exit.
“You think you have an idea of what you’ve signed up for. You don’t.” She marched toward the door and opened it for me.
I stepped outside and then turned to say goodbye, but before I could speak she said, “It’s not too late, you know.”
“Too late for what?” I asked.
“To leave him.”
I flinched. “You think I should leave Viper?”
“I think you haven’t been inked with his name yet. I think you’re a fool if you think this ends any way but you being alone. Just like me.”
She said it close enough to me that I felt her breath on my face. I straightened my spine and stood taller.
“You’ve been drinking,” I said.
“Damn right I have been. And so what?” Her mouth pinched. “My kids aren’t here. I’m not going anywhere. And my life is a pile ofshit. If I want to have a fucking bourbon with my coffee I can. I’m a fucking grown up.”
I took a deep breath, my concern for her growing.
Before I could say anything else, she slammed the door in my face.
I stood for a moment in silence and then walked to my truck.
I didn’t know what to do. Grief affected everyone differently, but this wasn’t the Darcy I’d come to know in our brief time together.
She’d been fun-loving, smiling, teasing.
Now she was drinking early in the morning, and her words about leaving Viper…
When I got home, Viper’s motorcycle was gone.
I didn’t want to tell anyone Darcy’s business, but I felt like I couldn’t really stay silent about it either.
So, I called the only person who’d understand what Darcy was living through.
